Biography
Michael Williams is the Director of Entrepreneurship Activities, the Director of the Business and Entrepreneurship Clinic and a Faculty Associate at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Business. He teaches graduate and undergraduate classes in entrepreneurship.
Prior to joining the UW, Williams was a Professor of Practice in the Eli Broad College of Business at Michigan State University. He developed and taught courses in entrepreneurship and strategy in the Full Time MBA, Weekend MBA and undergraduate programs for the Management Department.
Before joining MSU, Williams was the Chief Financial Officer for BIGGBY COFFEE, a coffee shop franchising company based in East Lansing, Michigan. Prior to BIGGBY, Williams owned Kismetic Enterprises East, LLC, a consulting business which provided interim-CFO duties, prepared business and financial plans and strategically prepared small to mid-sized companies to raise capital.
Prior to Kismetic, Williams held various C-level positions with Voyager.net, a small Internet company that experienced explosive growth and went public in 1999. Prior to Voyager.net, Williams was the Director of Finance for Nextel where he supported the $300 million build out of cellular infrastructure in the Michigan, Ohio and Indiana region. Prior to Nextel, he was the financial controller of a non-profit based in Battle Creek, Michigan. Prior to moving to Michigan, Williams was a District Business Manager for McCaw Cellular Communications in Sacramento, California. Williams also has experience in the banking industry having worked at the Federal Land Bank and First Independent Trust Company in Sacramento, CA.
Williams graduated from UW-Madison with a Bachelor of Science degree in Economics, and received a Masters of Arts degree in Economics from Walsh College in Troy, Michigan.